Friday, January 04, 2013

Things get hectic quick. From the satellite dish to your joy stick.

Quick Hitters and Random Thoughts

--F’n shingles! Are you happy now Texans?!

--I can’t recommend dining at The Pass enough. $95 for 8 courses that won’t leave you hungry is a bargain considering the ingredients, technique and creativity involved. I’ve never had a better dining experience from beginning to end. Can’t wait to save up enough pennies to do it again. Best vegetable course of all-time.

--Megan Ganz was a writer for Community. Keyword “was.” She was damn good and is worth a follow @MeganGanz. It’s not like anyone expected Community to run more than its 13 episodes starting next month and she did write a couple of them, but still. On the plus side she’s going to Modern Family which could use her or anyone who doesn’t want the same episode over and over.

--As someone who has rolled through Carthage a few times in the last few months it took me way too long to get around to seeing Bernie. Jack Black was damn good as the title character. Shirley MacLaine was as "unfriendly" as she was supposed to be. A small town Texas district attorney is a layup for Matthew McConaughey. The real stars were the real townspeople the movie used. So many good quotes including this one on the jury assembled in San Augustine:“They had more tattoos than teeth and not a brain between them all. And they’re supposed to decide a thing like this? I wouldn’t let them work on my car.”There was also a nice explanation of the five states of Texas from West Texas to San Antonio to Dallas to Houston to Carthage. “Course I left out the panhandle…and a lot of people do.”

--I'm a sucker for time travel so of course I was down with Looper. Solid flick with bonus, Garrett Dillahunt. I like the Rainmaker. My new puppy (thanks mom) can also be called a Rainmaker. Actually, I'm still in tryouts for names...Omar, Bodie, Gus, Nucky, Buscape (City of God), Django, Riggins, Ghost, Shaggydog, Tyrion, Chalupa Batman, Archer. And that's after I narrowed it down.

--Only a couple of people can get me to go out to a theater, even Sundance. Tarantino. Nolan. So yeah, I Django'd over the weekend. Loved it. Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson were terrific and really everyone was pretty strong except for Mr. Brown/Quentin Tarantino. But hey make a movie like that and you want to throw yourself in then go right ahead. But you make sure you go ahead and throw in Don Johnson and Walton Goggins in too. The Klan scene is worth the price of admission in and of itself.

--Risotto. #TopChefFamousLastWordsHate to see John Tesar go out like that. He’s infinitely more talented than maybe 2 or 3 of the 8 chefs left. And screw that dude with the handlebar mustache for offering his unsolicited opinion about John’s pots. Was John whining and making excuses? Yeah, but there’s no need to kick him while he’s down. Especially when this is like the first week you haven’t been on the bottom yourself. How that dude and Josie are still alive speaks to the yawn of a season this has been. Just give Kristen the title already.

--Look national morning news if you want me to believe “meggings are all the rage” then you’re going to have to show men actually wearing them instead of fashion cartoon characters like Lenny Kravitz, Justin Beiber and Russell Brand.

--In quit while they’re ahead news we have the new Astros batting practice caps that were given an A+ by Paul Lukas of ESPN. So I guess he was being serious with this description, “Did you see what they did there? The circle around the logo has a tequila sunrise gradation -- genius!” Huh? Tequila sunrise gradation?!

--Tip of the hat to @MigM_ for introducing me to Infinite Jukebox. Before I knew what happened I listed to 20 minutes of “Miss Atomic Bomb” and then another 20 minutes of “3AM Eternal.” Not sure what the point of putting Daft Punk on Infinite Jukebox.

--Bourdain on Archer? Naturally. It must have been hard to come up with a name for him. “Bastard Chef.” Guess not.

--So what, regular Tostitos aren’t good enough to be served in cantinas?

--Ryan Hansen on Parenthood being all Ryan Hansen was a nice surprise. The former Party Down'er has guested on Parenthood, League, Happy Endings, and Childrens Hospital lately. Also 2 Broke Girls, but nobody's perfect.

--Am I supposed to be surprised Rex Ryan has a tattoo of his wife wearing nothing but a Mark Sanchez jersey?

--Step one: Successfully rob bank. Step two: Pleasure yourself in public until the police are called. I checked twice and this happened to a guy in Seattle and not Florida. I’m gonna check one more time to be sure though.

Dude. Nice.Bernie was really good though I expected more out of Looper from what I'd heard.Josie is the absolute worst. AGAIN.I've watched some of the Modern Family's this season and it's a definite improvement. I'm just hard on it for winning so many undeserving awards although they'd just go to Big Bang if it wasn't for them so...